The Maze
"The Maze" is the seventeenth episode of Miami Vice's first season. The episode premiered on February 22, 1985. Summary A group of criminals hold homeless people, including Tubbs, hostage in a rundown hotel. Plot Crockett and Tubbs are talking shop with Detectives Tim Duryea (Jay O. Sanders) and Dickey Hawkins, discussing how the neighborhood has improved in six months due to watch programs, community cooperation and hard work, when a group of thugs break windows and assault the owner. The cops intervene but the thugs shoot Hawkins. Crockett chases one of them into a shopping mall, but he escapes after a shootout. At OCB, Crockett blames Duryea and his John Wayne-style tactics for Hawkins' death. Castillo can do nothing but file a report, and Homicide wants Vice to help them on this case, as no one in the neighborhood will talk. The Escobar brothers are determined to be responsible for the shooting; they were merely small-time cocaine dealers until they became cop-killers. Crockett canvasses the neighborhood and gets nothing. They find a dancer named Pepe (Adolfo Quinones) in a club and ask him about the Escobars. He no longer runs with the group, but knows they are holed up in the Maze, an abandoned hotel large enough to get lost in. Crockett has Switek and Zito go to the building owner and get blueprints of the Maze. Castillo makes plans to surround and enter the building. Duryea, still reeling from his partner's death and hungry for revenge, makes some outlandish suggestions at the meeting in OCB which are ignored. Castillo sends Tubbs in to evacuate the squatters inside, as he is better acclimated to their language. The police surround the building and Tubbs goes in. Duryea, impatient with the slow pace of things, charges the building, which gets the attention of the Escobars. After a brief exchange of gunfire the cops attempt to rush the building, but the Escobars threaten to kill all the families inside, taking Tubbs as another hostage, and the cops retreat. Castillo orders Duryea to stay inside the command area until the final assault, while Lt. Jack Davis (Joe Morton), a hostage specialist, takes charge of the situation and resolves to get all the hostages, including Tubbs, out safely. Castillo tells Crockett that Davis has lots of experience in these types of situations, and asks him to stay cool to help Tubbs. The Escobars are getting impatient with the hostages, especially the crying babies. When Davis speaks to Raul Escobar (Julian Reyes) via megaphone, Raul demands a helicopter to the Bahamas and $100,000, or the hostages are dead. Davis asks that the women and children be released as good faith, but they refuse. Elio Escobar (Alex Paez) makes a move on Gabriella (Garcelle Beauvais), but her brother Georges (Ving Rhames) intervenes, and is almost shot. Elio takes her again, and this time Georges charges in, only to be shot and killed. His body is dumped outside. Davis proposes luring the Escobars to the roof with a helicopter, and urges Raul to release the kids before the helicopter arrives. Raul, tired of the crying babies, agrees, and the cops pick them up. Tubbs is tied up and beaten by the Escobars, while warning them they are only making more trouble for themselves. Crockett volunteers to sneak in and guide the assault teams to the hostages. Tubbs works on Jaime Escobar (Eddie Castrodad), trying to convince him that his brothers are leading him to jail or worse. Crockett gets inside the building, locates the hostages and notifies Davis, who orders SRT in. Hearing the helicopter approach, the Escobars order everyone except Tubbs to the roof, and leaves Jaime to guard him. Tubbs lures Jaime over with a fake itch, which allows Tubbs to get to his gun and order Jaime to release him. Raul encounters the SRT squad, who gets them to back off when he holds a gun to Gabrielle's head, but the other squatters get away. Tubbs kills Xavier Escobar and takes Jaime with him. They run into a group of cops led by Duryea, who nearly shoots Jaime and Tubbs. Tubbs tells Duryea he doesn't deserve to be a cop and leaves Jaime with them. Crockett pursues and kills Elio, while Raul makes it to the roof with Gabrielle as his hostage, when Crockett, Tubbs and several SRT police corner him with guns pointed. Raul, after holding his gun to Gabrielle's head, finally breaks down, crying "I'm sorry!", as he surrenders. Cast *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *John Diehl as Metro-Dade Detective Larry Zito *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo Guest Stars *Joe Morton as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Jack Davis *Jay O. Sanders as Metro-Dade Detective Tim Duryea *Garcelle Beauvais as Gabriella *Ving Rhames as Georges *Eddie Castrodad as Jaime Escobar *Alex Paez as Elio Escobar *Julian Reyes as Raul Escobar *Adolfo Quinones as Pepe Co-Starring *William Fiscus as Metro-Dade Detective Dickey Hawkins *Luis R. Garcia as Luigi *Michael Hernandez as Xavier *Wallace E. Howard Jr. as Sharpshooter *Maurice Kirksey as Julio Ruiz *Julio C. Martinez as Manuel *Pamela Ann Phillips as Luise Ruiz *Claudia Robinson as Alisha Carrieres *Robert E. Sharpton as Cornelius Carrieres *Rosse Uranga as Maria Ruiz Notes * The Maze building is the old Blue Waters Hotel, which was visited again in Season 2's "French Twist" (where Crockett, Tubbs and Switek found the booby-trapped room), then demolished later. * When Switek and Zito come out of the store with their Fanta drinks and food, you can see the marquee of the then-hit movie Mischief on the marquee, which featured Terry O'Quinn from the episode "Little Prince". * This episode features Philip Michael Thomas singing his song "Livin' the Book of My Life". His solo career had just launched, and that title was also the title of the album. Its lead single, "Just the Way I Planned It" didn't go anywhere. Don Johnson would launch his own solo career a year later, and garner some success with his song "Heartbeat". * Jan Hammer's suspenseful music while Crockett is looking for one of the Escobars in the inside mall and when Crockett goes into The Maze was used again in "The Prodigal Son". Music *"Renegades of Funk" by Afrika Bambaataa (In club) *"Livin' The Book Of My Life" by Philip Michael Thomas (Tubbs singing when entering the Maze) *"Tea In The Sahara" by The Police (in Maze on boombox) Quotes *"Deney Terrio, eat your heart out!" -- Tubbs to Pepe in club *"Ladies and Gentlemen, this year's Nobel Peace Prize goes to...Tim Duryea!" -- Crockett commenting on Duryea's suggestion the squatters inside the Maze duck when the police bust in *"You're trigger-happy, man! You don't deserve to be a cop!" -- Tubbs to Duryea after nearly shooting he and Jaime Category:Miami Vice Season 1 Episodes